Almanac: Dogs in space – CBS News

And now a page from our “Sunday Morning” Almanac: August 20, 1960 — 57 years ago today — a date that gives new meaning to the expression “dog days of summer.”

Soviet space dogs Strelka and Belka after a successful space flight in 1960.

ITAR-TASS Photo Agency/Alamy

For that was the day space dogs Belka and Strelka returned alive after orbiting the Earth for a day in a Soviet spacecraft.

Belka and Strelka were female strays recruited for space travel on the theory that street dogs were a tougher breed than those pampered house pets.

Belka and Strelka had the right stuff all right, becoming the first canine cosmonauts to survive an orbital space flight — clearing the way for Yuri Gagarin to become the first human cosmonaut the following April.

Belka and Strelka never left Earth again. Strelka famously went on to give birth to a litter of puppies, one of whom was given to First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy as a goodwill gift.